“Choose Joy” (portrait of Kasse Brock and son)
Pencil, pastel, and watercolor
March 2020
I’ve taken great pleasure/interest in getting to know Kasse Brock over the two months since I came here to the Addy Inn, while the owners (friends of mine) are off on an extended trip to Israel…..a trip that’s been, like it or not, further extended during the current crisis. I do, indeed, enjoy my talks with Kasse……who tells me some bits of her past life and a few things about her current life, in which she works here as the uber-efficient manager (no other word for what she does) and, otherwise, lives with her partner and her two year old son over the mountain, in Waynesboro. She’s one of the most immediately interesting (and unavoidably smart) people I’ve ever met…..and she’s only 29 years old (although she keeps kindly mentioning that she’ll be 30 in a few weeks….which does nothing to alleviate the fact that, as of right now, I’m twice as old as she is and only about half as street-smart and/or, in some ways, as wise). All of which is to say that I like and admire her a great deal. All of our talk always circles back to her son, Jackson…..and the various photographs and videos she shows me on her i-phone as we sit on the back porch during down-times. I may not know much, and I may carelessly fail to see a lot of things in this life…..but I DO recognize when a mother truly loves her baby. I recently found myself watching a phone-video of the boy shouting “MEATBALL!” (which seems to be one of his first coherent words, after Kasse had made meatballs for their dinner). This old bachelor finds it all very charming. So, I just stole a picture from her facebook page and painted them. I’ll be giving it to Kasse when she drives into work her tomorrow morning. I hope she likes it. It’s not “flattering” of Kasse, but I doubt she’ll mind. You have to admit that the boy is, like my youngest terrier, Morgan, a jolly and irrepressible ROMPER-STOMPER. I know that her son will hate the painting when he’s older. I’m used to this routine. In any case…..many thanks to Kasse for showing me the ropes around this old joint……..
Pencil, pastel, and watercolor
March 2020
I’ve taken great pleasure/interest in getting to know Kasse Brock over the two months since I came here to the Addy Inn, while the owners (friends of mine) are off on an extended trip to Israel…..a trip that’s been, like it or not, further extended during the current crisis. I do, indeed, enjoy my talks with Kasse……who tells me some bits of her past life and a few things about her current life, in which she works here as the uber-efficient manager (no other word for what she does) and, otherwise, lives with her partner and her two year old son over the mountain, in Waynesboro. She’s one of the most immediately interesting (and unavoidably smart) people I’ve ever met…..and she’s only 29 years old (although she keeps kindly mentioning that she’ll be 30 in a few weeks….which does nothing to alleviate the fact that, as of right now, I’m twice as old as she is and only about half as street-smart and/or, in some ways, as wise). All of which is to say that I like and admire her a great deal. All of our talk always circles back to her son, Jackson…..and the various photographs and videos she shows me on her i-phone as we sit on the back porch during down-times. I may not know much, and I may carelessly fail to see a lot of things in this life…..but I DO recognize when a mother truly loves her baby. I recently found myself watching a phone-video of the boy shouting “MEATBALL!” (which seems to be one of his first coherent words, after Kasse had made meatballs for their dinner). This old bachelor finds it all very charming. So, I just stole a picture from her facebook page and painted them. I’ll be giving it to Kasse when she drives into work her tomorrow morning. I hope she likes it. It’s not “flattering” of Kasse, but I doubt she’ll mind. You have to admit that the boy is, like my youngest terrier, Morgan, a jolly and irrepressible ROMPER-STOMPER. I know that her son will hate the painting when he’s older. I’m used to this routine. In any case…..many thanks to Kasse for showing me the ropes around this old joint……..